Astronomical Odds
Here’s the third episode of the excellent BBC documentary series, The Planets. Titled Giants, the film follows the ingenuity and serendipity of the 1977 Voyager mission and its “grand tour” of the outer planets.
A happy alignment. Slingshot. Magnetic Jupiter. 3 million amps. Rings and ghosts.
Fearsome weather. Saturn’s other side. Shattered. Perfect timing. Still listening.
Other episodes can be viewed here.
That's gorgeous.
Posted by:Ralph | May 07, 2008 at 22:03
Thanks, David, that was wonderful.
Posted by:clazy | May 08, 2008 at 05:05
"The surface of Io is constantly reforming as molten rock erupts from its many volcanoes. In the 17 years between the Voyager and Galileo missions, one volcano moved 80km across Io's surface. Io's orbit cuts across Jupiter's powerful magnetic lines of force, turning Io into a giant electricity generator. Io can create currents of 3 million amps. This filters back down to Jupiter, creating lightning storms in the planet's upper atmosphere. As Jupiter rotates, its magnetic field sweeps past Io and strips off about 1,000 kg (1 ton) of Io's material every second."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/solarsystem/jupiter/io.shtml
Posted by:Anna | May 08, 2008 at 12:00